Noah is very much hitting the same beats he hit in the previous episodes. And it does feel like about half of Noah's and Allison's interactions involve one of them pulling the other into a more secluded spot. However, while we did not learn much more about Noah, we did see the world of the island expand as well as seeing more about Allison's personal life.
Noah seems primarily motivated by the road not take more than discontent with his own life. While staying with his in laws for several months may not be ideal, it may be the catalyst that wakes up these feelings of wrestlessness rather than his wreslessness being the status quo. Wondering what the other Noahs are doing in different corners of the multiverse seems to be on his mind, and it keeps being brought to the front of his mind by interactions with Allison. Those interactions seem to be catalyzed by friction laden events between Noah and his family or in laws.
One technique we see often in Mad Men is that a character, Don or Peggy perhaps, will encounters something unsettingling or that angers them. Another character then walks into their path, unaware that they are primed for explosion and then get the full brunt of their ire. For example, Don is already upset when Pete walks into his office seeking counsel about trying to land American Airlines, following the death of his own father (on an American Flight). After Pete is scolded by Don he turns then to Duck to try and land the client as Duck cuts into Don's alliances. When Mad Men uses this technique it is some of the strongest plotting you'll see on the series.
So Noah falls into this loop where his wrestlesness both informs his attempts to find Allison and stems from his interactions with her.
Noah reminds me of something Jimmy on You're the Worst said. He blames his break up with Gretchen on his desire to seek misery and discontent, an inability to accept good news, which stems from him trying desperately to live the life of a writer...one of despair and agony and pain and alcoholism. Struggling to put together a second novel, Noah seems intent on playing the role of a writer in order to inform his writing (and use writer-ly phrases like "the death of the American pastoral")
The Island
The Island World is expanding. Local politics are front and center and there's a long standing feud between Oscar's and Cole's families, with families supporting one or the other. It appears as business owners whose families go back generations on the island they need not introduce themselves to people, as they are known and the lines are already drawn. Oscar tries to draw support, half jokingly, from Allison knowing if Cole's own wife sided with Oscar it'd go a long way. It also means he must know in advance Cole's going to have a mini tantrum about a bowling alley.
The thing about Cole's tantrum is that it is disguised. He camouflages his desire to not only have toys himself but to keep others from enjoying their own toys as merely a desire to maintain what is true and decent about their home. He wraps himself in nostalgia and sympathy like so many politicians wrap themselves in the flag. He blames the locals problems and the loss of their way of life on some intangible and ill defined specter represented by Oscar's bowling alley. There's a clear progress and "tradition" divide, given words by Cole's indifference to NASA in a separate rant.
Worst of all, Cole invokes his dead son. He does this not once but twice. The visceral appeal for sympathy works and the townspeople respond in a way the council sees the writing on the wall and delays Oscars development for "further study" which is probably a euphemism for "suck an egg, Oscar."
Cole's diatribe is probably the first and best thing to define Cole's character, especially in concert with his get-off-my-lawn screed about their neighbor's house's height. While the rest of his appearances are layered in ambiguity and painted in gray, this, coming from Allison's POV, makes no bones about what Cole is doing.
Allison
She reprimands Cole for his dead baby and nostalgia tirade. Using Gabriel as a means to an end is unacceptable. We see that everything Allison does is in response to grief*. She starts her day the happiest we've seen her but the longer it goes on the worse things get for her. Not only does she resent the way Cole brings up Gabriel, but she probably also resents his ability to talk about Gabriel on his own terms while she is still reacting to everyone on the island constantly putting it in her face. It's draining.
* And this is so much more expertly done than the grief porn we saw on the show that shall not be named
Allison has a bandage on her person again and I wonder if we're supposed to be thinking of the wounds she still sports from having lost her son. This one is even bigger.
What we know, what we don't
- The interrogator is called "detective" so we'll assume cop.
- Allison's a nurse. Maybe I was wrong about Gabriel dying from an accident rather than a sickness. Or maybe she simply can't help but replace Gabriel's face with that of any helpless child she encounters.
- We don't know who died, but I think we're supposed to think it's Cole which makes me think it's 'not Cole'. It's not Oscar either. I hope this doesn't get dragged out.
- There are some envelopes of money being passed around.
- Couple this with the weird need to close the door at the taxi dispatch...there's something below the surface here and I think it involves Cole's family at a high level. The Montauk Illuminati. Or at least like the Commodore of Atlantic City
In each of Noah's and Allison's accounts, the other person appears to be the driver in the affair. The other person appears more confident and self assured. In Allison's account, Noah is worldly and cultured and confident. In Noah's, Allison is sultry and seductive and her skirts are like two inches shorter.
Kurosawa
- Seems odd Allison would live on an island and not know how to swim, no?
- Noah's in laws have a trump card on the fact that he and Helen have accepted their money in the past. Probably following a long disagreement between the two that Helen ultimately won.
- And so Noah gets to sit there and hear his mother in law talk about him as though he's not there
- And Rawls gets to keep being a dick to McNulty, but this time McNulty doesn't have a body to dump on him via tidal charts
No comments:
Post a Comment